August 2007 BOTM - St. Arnold's Brewery

We had a good time at the brewery on Saturday, having some good beers which led to good comments. There is no air conditioning in the warehouse where they brew the beer and where you sit to enjoy it, so I recomend the next visit being in December or January.

Here are some photos of what we drank...


From left to right this is Brown, Amber, and Oktoberfest...I think.

St. Arnold's Brown - 4-Surprisingly smooth, Jonathan, 3.5+-Newcastle+, The Master (I think Newcastle is one of his favorites and this beer is right there next to it)

Oktoberfest - 4-for the taste of the beer but 2 for an Oktoberfest...Nothing close to a real oktoberfest beer, Jonathan, 2-The Veteran agrees that it is nothing close to the real thing, Arijan, 2.75-Nothing fancy, but solid, The Master

Elissa (it's an IPA) - 3-Nice and strong for an IPA, Jonathan

Lawnmower (somekind of ale) - 4-The perfect summer drink, refreshing, Jeff, 3-Summer ale, The Master



Texas Wheat - 1.5-Schudy beer, The Master. Just to prove how weak this beer is, this picture is of an unfinished tasting cup of the Texas Wheat. It was a small sample that Arijan, Jeff and I all drank...and we didn't finish it...it was that bad.

Amber - 3-One of my favorite Ambers, The Veteran a.k.a. Arijan, 3-Strong for an amber, but worth the pour, Jonathan

The last St. Arnold's product tasted was their rootbeer - 3.75-Maybe the best rootbeer of all time, Jonathan

Now as was sat there and drank beers for a while we got to know our neighbors sitting at our table. At one end there was a mom with her two daughters playing cards, Sudoku, and dominos. The mom had some beers as her kids got all hopped up on rootbeer (there is a pound of sugar in every gallon). At the other end of the table there were two girls, maybe in their mid twenties. As you can assume the conversation with girls (sitting next to James and Arijan) was a little more interesting than the wicked game of war going on next to me. It was a little loud in the warehouse with a few hundred people all talking and drinking, but my ears perked up when I heard the words Fat Tire mentioned at the end of the table. The two ladies at the end of the table were expressing how awful Fat Tire tastes...WHAT!? They were bombarded with questions from James, Arijan, Jeff, and myself about how they could think in such a way. Did they even like beer!? Here are their quotes on Fat Tire:

Fat Tire - Tastes like vomet, girl next to James, and equal to Bud Light but worse than Budweiser, girl next to Arijan.

Clearly they have a lot to learn..what were they doing at a quality brewery anyway!? They probably ran into Schudy in the Budweiser aisle on the way home. All in all, it was a good time.

A little taste of what's to come...

Schudy came across some old labels and critics from a past Beer Of The Month, in the back of my car. So in order to try to kick off the BOTM blog, I am going to post these for all to enjoy. I don't know what month this was, but it was definately a few months ago. The scoring is a follows: 1-Avoid this beer at all costs, 2-I could have another, 3-Good choice, and 4-Gotta have it again.


1. Whitbread Pale Ale - I don't remember who brought it but it scored a 2.5 from Lee, a 2 from Robbie, and a 3 from John.


2. Yanjing - I brought this and it had the lowest scores of the night. It scored ones from Jonathan, Robbie, and John. The comments were: too tangy for beer - Jonathan, watery, chinese - John.


3. Liberty Ale, Anchor Brewing Co. (San Francisco) - Liberty was well accepted with scores and comments like: 4-"A good. full-flavored beer" Jonathan, 3-"How could you rank a beer named Liberty any lower?" the Master, 3-"Nice" Lee, 3-Robbie, 4-"Soild" John.


4. Full Sail Amber, Full Sail Brewing (Hood River, OR) - 3.5-"A good, tasty amber in the company of amber's that is" Jonathan, 4-I can't read his hand writing, but it is something to affect of "good beer" James, 4-"Best all night" Lee, 3-Robbie, 4-John


5. Budweiser, Anheiser Busch (St. Louis, MO) - Schudy has this thing about bringing most common beers in America. He has been known to bring "The Beast," "The Silver Bullet," and on this particular night, some Wisconson Champagne, the King of Beers. Here are the reviews: 1-"Schudy please" Jonathan, 4-"Bottom line" Schudy, 3-"Solid" Robbie, 2-"A classic" John


6. Bohemia Beer, Mexico - James brought this beer as you can tell from his comment. 4-"Smooth and solid" Jonathan, 4-"It seems like I am cheating, but I picked the best beer" James, 3-"Pretty good" Lee, 4-"Viva cerveza" John

Welcome BOTM Houston

Fellas, I talked about it...and now I am doing it, a beer of the month blog! The beer scrap book was a good idea, but I never remembered to bring it. And with Ryan not around anymore, who was going to peel all the labels off (or cut the can for whatever Schudy brought)?

I am hoping that every BOTM, I (or someone) can remeber a digital camera to take pictures of all the brews. Then we can possibly blog all the reviews that night or we can write them down and I will record them on the blog later. Not only could this be easier, but our work/taste will be out there for the world to review and if need be that you must recall what your critique was on a particular beer, just visit the site.

We'll try to run with this for the next (date still TBD for August) Beer of the Month.

Sincerely,

Jonathan - Founder, CEO, Owner/Operator, Member, and all around good guy